1921-1930

  • Abram Room – Yevrei na zemle aka Jews on the Land (1927)

    Abram Room1921-1930DramaSilentSoviet silent cinemaUSSR
    Yevrei na zemle (1927)
    Yevrei na zemle (1927)

    Quote:
    A 20-minute documentary of Jewish settlement in the Yevpatoria district of the Crimea. Exhibiting a certain amount of Jewish irony, Jews on the Land opens with scenes of a war-devastated shtetl (all that is left of the central market is a single pathetic fish stall), than shows an elderly Jew wandering about an even more desolate wilderness. Soon, however, sod-brick settlements rise and, as irrigation ditch criss-cross the once –barren plain, the now- productivised Jews are equally transformed: a new-born baby is named Forget-You-Sorrow. Tractor drivers and Young Pioneers’ are given particular pride of place and the film-makers emphasise that, among other livestock, these new Jewish peasants are raising pigs.
    “Inside the film factory” by Richard Taylor, Ian ChristieRead More »

  • Herbert Wilcox – Nell Gwynne (1926)

    Herbert Wilcox1921-1930EpicSilentUSA
    Nell Gwynne (1926)
    Nell Gwynne (1926)

    An actress becomes the king’s mistress and persuades him to convert the palace to a servicemen’s home.Read More »

  • Tod Browning – The Mystic (1925)

    Tod Browning1921-1930CrimeSilentUSA
    The Mystic (1925)
    The Mystic (1925)

    A fantastically atmospheric but rarely seen missing link in the development of Tod Browning’s artistry, set amid his favored milieu of shadowy sideshows and clever criminals, The Mystic provides a striking showcase for silent-era diva Aileen Pringle, who sports a series of memorably outré looks (courtesy of art deco designer Erté) as Zara, a phony psychic in a Hungarian carnival who, under the guidance of a Svengali-like con man (Conway Tearle), crashes—and proceeds to swindle—American high society. Browning’s fascination with the weird is on full display in the eerie séance sequences, while his subversive moral ambiguity extends surprising sympathy to even the most seemingly irredeemable of antiheroes.Read More »

  • Dziga Vertov – Entuziazm (Simfoniya Donbassa) AKA Enthusiasm (The Donbass Symphony) (1930)

    Dziga Vertov1921-1930DocumentaryExperimentalSoviet montageUSSR
    Entuziazm (Simfoniya Donbassa) (1930)
    Entuziazm (Simfoniya Donbassa) (1930)

    PLOT:
    Vertov and his Kino group produced this lyrical documentary on the lives of Coal miners in the Donbas who are struggling to meet their production quotas under the five year plan. Enthusiasm is most noteworthy for it’s creative use of the new sound medium. Vertov liberated the recording equipment from the studio and shot sound on location. He also used common everyday sounds and wove them into what can only be described as a symphony. In fact, after seeing the film Charlie Chaplin wrote: “Never had I known that these mechanical sounds could be arranged to sound so beautiful. I regard it as one of the most exhilarating symphonies I have heard. Mr. Dziga Vertov is a musician.”Read More »

  • Jean Renoir – Sur un air de Charleston aka Charleston parade (1927)

    Jean Renoir1921-1930FantasyFranceSci-Fi
    Sur un air de Charleston (1927)
    Sur un air de Charleston (1927)

    PLOT DESCRIPTION
    French filmmaker Jean Renoir would later remark that he directed the sensual dance fantasy Charleston because he’d “just discovered American jazz.” He also had some stock footage left over from his previous silent success Nana, and decided it would be provident to fashion a new film from these leavings. Even without the benefit of sound, one can hear the jazzy rhythms of Charleston through the exuberant gyrations of an African-American dancer whom Renoir and his star, actress Catherine Hessling, had discovered for this picture. Originally titled Sur un air de Charleston, the film was also released as Charleston Parade in English-speaking countries. In some areas of the US and Europe, the film was greeted with protests from censorship boards who simply couldn’t appreciate the aesthetic value in Catherine Hessling’s near-nude dance numbers.
    ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Raoul Walsh – The Loves of Carmen (1927)

    Raoul Walsh1921-1930ClassicsRomanceUSA
    The Loves of Carmen (1927)
    The Loves of Carmen (1927)

    Bad quality but very rare. I don’t know the source for this video, but it looks like a distant ancestor was a vhs.

    Here’s an imdb review by lugonian:
    THE LOVES OF CARMEN (Fox, 1927), directed by Raoul Walsh, reunites Walsh with his WHAT PRICE GLORY (1926) leading players of Dolores Del Rio and Victor McLaglen in a story based on Prosper Merimee’s classic story, “Carmen,” that later served as an 1875 Georges Bizet opera. For those unfamiliar with the plot, this edition, one of many, comes across as more faithful to the aforementioned properties from which it is based.Read More »

  • Richard Oswald – Dreyfus AKA The Dreyfus Case (1930)

    1921-1930DramaGermanyRichard OswaldWeimar Republic cinema

    Quote:
    History of the legal scandal involving the French Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was convicted of treason and sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island in 1894 because of an anti-Semitic conspiracy in the war ministry. Supported by the writer Emile Zola Dreyfus’s wife Lucie fights for his release. In 1899, the verdict against Dreyfus was repealed and shortly after, Dreyfus was pardoned. But it took another six years until Dreyfus was fully exonerated. (filmportal.de)Read More »

  • Georg Jacoby – Geld auf der Straße (1930)

    Comedy1921-1930AustriaGeorg Jacoby

    Peter is an aviator who dreams of a life in wealth and luxury. He meets the banker’s daughter Dodo.Read More »

  • James W. Horne & Buster Keaton – College (1927)

    1921-1930Buster KeatonComedyJames W. HorneSilentUSA

    To reconcile with his girlfriend, a bookish college student tries to become an athlete.Read More »

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